Posted on 29-6-2004

Greening Ethiopia For Self-Sufficiency

Famines and Ethiopia and other African countries have become irrevocably
linked in the public mind since Bob Geldof’s Live Aid Concert in the
1980s. In 2002, we carried the first and only report (Science in Society
#16) on how Ethiopia is determined to feed herself. In this present
exclusive mini-series, we update the entire story of the remarkable
successes achieved in reviving the traditional farming practice of pit
composting that has now convinced Ethiopia to adopt organic agriculture
for the entire country.
Greening Ethiopia

Sue Edwards reports on the challenges and opportunities facing Ethiopia as
steps are taken to reverse the ecological and social damages that have
locked the country in poverty.
Challenges

Ethiopia is a land-locked country in the ‘Horn of Africa’ to the northeast
of Africa. Its topography is very diverse, encompassing mountains over
4000 m above sea level, high plateaus, deep gorges cut by rivers and arid
lowlands including the Afar Depression 110 m below sea level.

The South Westerly is one of the country’s three moisture-bearing wind
systems. Originating from the South Atlantic, it brings the greatest
amount of moisture during the wet season (June–August). The mean annual
rainfall is highest (above 2 700 mm) in the southwestern highlands,
gradually decreasing to below 200 mm in the southeastern lowlands, and to
100 mm or less in the northeastern lowlands. The mean temperature ranges
from a high of 45°C (April–September) in the Afar Depression to 0°C or
lower at night in the highlands (November-February).

Ethiopia’s population was 53.48 million in 1994, of which 86.3 percent was
rural. It grew at the rate of 2.9 percent per annum between 1984 and 1994;
by 2003, it was estimated to have exceeded 67 million and could reach 94.5
million by 2015. The population has an average age of just 21.8 years,
with 44% under 15 years and the group 15 to 25 years making up more than
20%. School enrolment has increased, but the literacy rate remains about
35%. There is a high dependency ratio and although official unemployment
is around 3%, it exceeds 30% in the urban youth, while under-employment is
widespread in the rural population.

The country currently faces a number of environmental challenges resulting
directly or indirectly from human activities, exacerbated by rapid
population growth and the consequent increase in the exploitation of
natural resources. The challenges range from land degradation to
environmental pollution, due to the misguided application of chemicals in
agriculture, for domestic purposes or for the manufacture of industrial
products. Ethiopia has accumulated one of the largest stockpiles of
obsolete pesticides in the continent, estimated to be around 3000 tonnes
in 2003. The misuse of natural resources includes burning dung as fuel,
instead of using it as a soil conditioner. Losses to crop production from
burning dung and soil erosion are estimated at over 600,000 tonnes
annually, or twice the average yearly requests for food aid.

Opportunities

Ethiopia is one of the least developed countries in the world, and its
economy rests mainly on agriculture. It accounts for more than 75 percent
of total exports, over 85 percent of employment; and about 45 percent of
the GDP (gross domestic product). Coffee alone makes up more than 87
percent of the total agricultural exports. Hides and skins are the next
most important export items, as raw, processed or manufactured goods.

Several seasonal and perennial crops are grown. The main ones are cereals
(tef, barley, maize, wheat, sorghum, oats and finger millet), root crops
(enset, Irish, sweet and indigenous potatoes, taro, yams), pulses (horse
bean, fenugreek, field pea, haricot bean, chickpea, grass pea and lentil),
oil crops (niger seed, linseed, safflower, rapeseed, groundnut, safflower
and sesame), vegetables (cabbage, tomato, hot peppers, pumpkin, onions and
garlic) and many herbs and spices. The major cash and industrial crops are
coffee, tea, citrus, papaya, banana, avocado, mango, oil seeds, pulses,
cotton, sisal, tobacco, fruits, vegetables, spices, sugar cane and chat
(also called mira).

Agriculture is one of the key sectors in which to devote efforts in
accelerating socio-economic development and reducing poverty.

Problems of chemical inputs

The Sasakawa Global 2000 (SG-2000) programme was started by the Ministry
of Agriculture in 1995 to boost food crop production through a focused
campaign to get farmers to use chemical fertilizer along with high
yielding varieties (HYVs) and pesticides. However, it promoted only the
adoption of fertilizer through credit schemes and subsidized prices. Prior
to 1995, Ethiopia had one of the lowest per capita uses of fertilizer in
the world. Under SG-2000, farmers were allowed to select and use the best
of their own local varieties rather than buy seed of HYVs. Very little use
of pesticides has developed except for dealing with migratory pests,
particularly armyworm, and local swarms such as Pachnoda beetles on
sorghum and the endemic Wello Bush Cricket on cereals.

Since 1998, the subsidy on fertilizer has been withdrawn while the price
of fertilizer has risen. Despite that, by 2001, around 5% of the
smallholder farmers of the country, particularly those growing maize, had
become accustomed to using fertilizer. But that year, the price dropped
out of the bottom of the maize market and the farm gate price in some
areas fell to the equivalent of US$1.50 per 100 kg of maize.

In 2002, many farmers were heavily in debt and withdrew from the
fertilizer schemes. Many parts of the country were also hit by drought
with the result that yields declined, or crops failed completely and the
government requested food aid for more than 14 million people, nearly a
quarter of the total population.

Expanding horticultural production is making increasing use of chemical
inputs, often with little or no understanding of either how to handle
those chemicals safely, or how to use them correctly. For example, a
survey by the local Safe Environment Association and PAN-UK (Pesticides
Action Network, UK) found malathion being sprayed on the leaves of the
local stimulant, chat (Catha edulis), in order to make them shiny and more
attractive to purchasers. Another group of farmers had been using DDT to
control insect pests on chat until they associated increasing stomach
problems with the use of the chemical.

The use of agrochemicals in smallholder agriculture is rapidly increasing;
and this is in addition to the substantial amounts already deployed on the
few large-scale farms, particularly cotton farms. The misuse of pesticides
and fertilizers is damaging human health and polluting the surrounding
environment.

Greening Ethiopia

In 2002, the Ethiopian government issued a new policy guideline on Rural
Development and set up a supra-ministry to coordinate activities. The
Rural Development policy guideline regards environmental rehabilitation as
an essential factor in increasing productivity.

The Environmental Policy of Ethiopia has incorporated a basic principle
similar to one adopted in organic agriculture: "Ensure that essential
ecological processes and life support systems are sustained, biological
diversity is preserved and renewable natural resources are used in such a
way that their regenerative and productive capabilities are maintained,
and, where possible, enhanced...; where this capacity is already impaired
to seek through appropriate interventions a restoration of that
capability."

Key elements of the policy cover soil husbandry and sustainable
agriculture, and can support the development of more specific policy and
regulations for organic agriculture. These include promoting the use of
appropriate organic matter and nutrient management for improving soil
structure, nutrient status and microbiology; maintaining traditional
integration of crop and animal husbandry in the highlands, and enhancing
the role of pastoralists in the lowlands; promoting water conservation;
focusing agricultural research and extension on farming and land use
systems as a whole, with attention to peculiarities of local conditions;
promoting agroforestry/farm forestry; ensuring that potential costs of
soil degradation through erosion, chemical degradation and pollution are
taken into account; shifting the emphasis in crop breeding to composites
and multi-lines to increase adaptability to environmental changes and to
better resist pests and diseases; using biological and cultural methods,
resistant or tolerant varieties or breeds, and integrated pest and disease
management in preference to chemical controls; and applying the
precautionary principle in making decisions.

This enabling policy context dovetails with a unique experiment in
sustainable development and ecological land management conducted with
farmers in Tigray.